The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [47]
Sawyer’s eyes narrowed and his jaw locked. With a vicious oath he turned away, then ran a hand through his dark hair. Just then Honey noticed Sawyer wore only boxers himself. Tight boxers. That hugged his muscled behind like a second skin.
Her lips parted. Her skin flushed. Blinking was an impossibility.
She stood there spellbound until Jordan set the cat down and started to lead her away. He held her arm with one hand and his sheet with the other and tried to take her to the table. Belatedly she realized his intent and held back because that would put her alongside Morgan, and she knew no one had thrown him any pants yet.
“I’m all right,” she whispered, wishing Sawyer would look at her instead of staring out the window at the pitch black night.
Jordan released her with a worried frown. She went back to the door and began picking up the keys and the contents of her purse. No one said anything, and when she was done, she carefully replaced the keys where they belonged. With her back to all of them, she said, “I wanted to get to the next town. I have a credit card, and I could charge a room, then call my sister to let her know I’m okay.”
Jordan, Gabe and Morgan all asked, “You have a sister?” and, “Does she look like you?” and, “How old is she?”
Honey rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe they could be interested in that right now. “She’s way prettier than me, but dark instead of fair, and she’s a year younger. But the point is, she’ll be worried. I told her I’d call her when I got settled somewhere. Then I’m going to hire a private detective to find out who’s after me.”
Casey frowned at her. “Why couldn’t you do that from here?”
How could she tell him she was already starting to care too much about them all? Especially Sawyer? She tempered the truth and admitted, “I want to make things as simple as possible. I don’t want to involve anyone else in my private problems.”
Sawyer still hadn’t turned or said a word, and it bothered her.
Gabe rooted through the cabinets for a cookie. “Why not just go to the police?”
She really hated to bare her soul, but it looked as if her time had run out. She clutched her purse tightly and stared at Sawyer’s back. “My father is an influential man. Recently he decided to run for city council. He’s been campaigning, and things have looked promising so far. When I broke off my engagement, he was really angry because he’d planned to use the wedding as a means to campaign, inviting a lot of important, connected people to the normal round of celebrations that go with an engagement. Our relationship was already strained, and we’d barely spoken all week. He…well, he hit the roof when I told him I thought someone was after me. He thinks I’m just over-reacting, letting my imagination run away because I’m distraught over the broken engagement. When I said I was going to the police, he threatened to cut me off because he says I’m causing him too much bad publicity, and he’s certain I’ll only make a fool of myself and draw a lot of unnecessary negative speculation that will damage his campaign.”
Morgan started to stand, but when she squealed and covered her eyes, he sat back down again. “Casey, go get me something to wear, will you?”
“Why me? I don’t wanna miss what’s going on.”
Morgan frowned at him. “I’m not dressed, that’s why. And she’s acting all squeamish about it, so she’d probably rather I didn’t get up and parade around right now. Course, if you don’t care how she feels…”
Put that way, Casey had little choice. He looked thoroughly disgruntled, and agreed with a lot of reluctance. “All right. But you owe me.” He sauntered off, and the cat, apparently enjoying all the middle-of-the-night excitement, bounded after him.
Morgan folded his arms on the bar, looking like he’d made the most magnanimous gesture of all by offering to put on clothes. “So since your daddy threatened to cut the purse strings, you ran off instead?”
Now, that did it! It was almost one o’clock in the morning; she was tired, frazzled, embarrassed and worried. The last thing she intended to put